Editors’ Picks: 11 Things to See in New York This Week

Each week, we search New York City for the most exciting and thought-provoking shows, screenings, and events. See them below.

Monday, January 15

Alicia Hall Moran’s Here Today. Album art: Amy Sherald, What’s precious inside of him does not care to be known by the mind in ways that diminish its presence (All American), 2017. Image courtesy of the artist and Monique Meloche Gallery.

1. Alicia Hall Moran performance at Gavin Brown’s enterprise
Mezzo-soprano Alicia Hall Moran makes a point of collaborating with visual artists, musicians, poets, and writers. Her new album Here Today features cover art by Amy Sherald (recently tapped to paint Michelle Obama for the Smithsonian). In a special performance and cocktail reception at Gavin Brown—rescheduled from earlier in the month thanks to the so-called bomb cyclone snow storm—Moran will be joined by guest performer Jason Moran, hot off his Performa outing with painter Julie Mehretu. Brooklyn-based artists Erik Moskowitz and Amanda Trager will also debut a new video work created for the album. Dress code is “festive.”

Robin Rhode performing at Perfoma 15 in Times Square in New York. Photo courtesy of Performa.

2. RoseLee Goldberg in Conversation with artist Robin Rhode at NeueHouse Madison Square
Performa founding director and chief curator RoseLee Goldberg talks with South African artist Robin Rhode about his Performa 15 Commission, Arnold Schönberg’s Erwartung. A solo singer and assembled 20-member orchestra performed a version of the one-act 1909 opera, changing the story to be about how South African women were affected by the migrant labor system of apartheid that separated them from their husbands. The project, which was staged in Times Square, was filmed from multiple vantage points, and the recording was recently released.

3. “Figurative Diaspora” at the New York Academy of Art
For this year’s winter show of figurative painting, artist Mark Tansey and NYAA dean Peter Drake have brought together a selection of works of unofficial, non-sanctioned state art from artists working under the Soviet and Chinese regimes. Beginning in the 1950s, young Chinese artists were sent to the USSR to learn oil painting, not a traditional Chinese art form.The academy claims this is the first exhibition to explore this connection, pointing out that there were artists from both countries who subverted their academic training to create politically dangerous work.

5. Huguette Caland at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Art
For its second exhibition, the Institute of Arab and Islamic Art presents the first institutional solo show for Lebanese artist Huguette Caland. Working at the crossroads of art, fashion, and design, Caland often turns to her own body as a subject, speaking to society’s politicization of female sexuality. She is best known for her caftans, having been tapped by fashion designer Pierre Cardin to create a collection of them for his label. The four decades worth of work on view include the first caftan Caland ever made.

Photo from Larry Fink: The Outpour, taken at the Women’s March on Washington. Photo courtesy of Larry Fink.

6. Larry Fink: The Outpour, a Fundraiser for Planned Parenthood of New York City at Steven Kasher Gallery
Larry Fink’s newly published monograph features his photographs of the Women’s March on Washington from January 21, 2017. It’s been issued in a limited edition of 500 by L’Artiere in Bologna, priced at $25 for signed copies. Fink is also selling $150 limited edition prints from the book, and all the proceeds go to the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

7. “Imprint 93” at Printed Matter, Inc.
The first US-based presentation of “Imprint 93,” the archive exhibition of artist Matthew Higg’s collaborative mail-art project, originally exhibited at London’s Whitechapel Gallery. Between 1993 and 1998, Higgs solicited artists to create work that could fit inside an envelope to be distributed among a group of friends, curators, and other artists.

8. “After Midnight: Fast Forward Art History” at e-flux
If you’re bold enough to schedule a panel discussion on the uses of art history for 7 p.m. on a Friday, you better come correct for the line-up of speakers. Fortunately for e-flux (and us), this event—sparked by the publication of Molly Nesbit’s collection Midnight: The Tempest Essays—features Nesbit herself, Hilton Als, Yasmin Ramirez, and Ann Reynolds. Each panelist will present part of a work in progress before the group digs into how and why art history can matter to people uninterested in rocking boxy tweed jackets or smelling like a wet scroll. If anyone can answer those questions satisfyingly in 2018, it’s this quartet.

9. “Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2017” at the Aperture Foundation
For the first time, the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize is holding an exhibition of work from its winner, Dana Lixenberg, and shortlisted artists, Sophie Calle, Awoiska van der Molen, duo Taiyo Onorato and Nico Krebs, In the US, Lixenberg was awarded the £30,000 ($41,200) prize for her 22-year-long project Imperial Courts, which began with a magazine assignment on the aftermath of the riots over the verdict of the Rodney King trial and documents the evolution of the community in South Central Los Angeles.

11. “Winter Weekend” at Storm King Art Center
If you’re looking to get away from the city, Storm King is open for a special winter weekend; a walking tour will be held at 1 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday on a first-come, first-serve basis, otherwise, the grounds are open for free-roaming and art-viewing.